10 Hilarious YouTube Pranks for April Fool’s Day

Traditionally, the first day of April is a perfect time to get your kicks by playing jokes and setting up pranks for your friends, family and coworkers. Some people like to prepare for this day by pulling pranks all year long for practice. Thank goodness we now have YouTube so jokesters can record these pranks and the reactions they cause and then post them for our enjoyment.

Because watching pranks is way easier than setting them up and much nicer than torturing your own friends, family and coworkers, we waded through the many hours of prank videos on YouTube and picked a few good ones for you.

1. The Passed Out Pilot

This is a quick one, but still good for a laugh. It would be a little scary to suddenly realize the pilot of the plane you’re riding in has lost consciousness. Panic would set in as your life flashed before your eyes. Your heart would start pounding, just long enough for the pilot to laugh and tell you the joke's on you.

2. Bubba The Jiu-Jitsu Dummy

Normally, the non-human dummy helps with Jiu-Jitsu instruction. On this day, the dummy took on human form and helped with scaring some students. With all of their Jiu-Jitsu training, we’re pretty sure “Bubba” is lucky he didn’t get hit.

3. The Invisible Rope

This is a YouTube classic that all the kids are doing, and probably a prank your forefathers were playing on angry neighborhood residents half a century ago. The trick is simple -- if it looks like you’re holding a rope, people will believe there is a rope. We’re surprised people didn’t want to drive through and knock the pranksters over.

4. Cone-ing

Another YouTube trend that any bored teen with a couple of dollars and a nearby fast food chain can and will do is cone-ing. You simply pull through the drive-thru, order an ice cream cone and, when picking it up, grab it by the ice cream and not the cone. The best thing about this particular variation of the usually boring trick is the fantastic reaction.

5. Elmo orders at Taco Bell

You can find more than one version of this prank, but this version of a guy using his best Elmo voice to order at Taco Bell is a keeper. He really sells it with lines like, “Elmo needs a lemonade,” and, “This concludes Elmo’s order.” What an adorable way to spice up the dullness that is the fast food drive-thru window.

6. The Disappearing Soda

We found another way to have fun at the drive-thru. These fast-food employees are baffled at the way their soft drink machine keeps delivering half-full cups of soda. They seem full when they hand them to the driver and then, somehow, they aren’t full any more. See how long this guy keeps them going.

7. Walled Off Offices

How do you let your boss know who’s really the boss? You put in a couple of new walls so he can’t get to his office. Watch what happens when people arrive at work only to find that their offices and the hallway to them no longer exist. You can also watch it with commentary.

9. The Scary Snowman

Snowmen are usually harmless winter fun that everyone can enjoy. Sometimes it’s fun to confuse your neighbors with odd snow sculptures, but for the most part snowmen are pretty harmless and liked by all. Except for this one. He’s scary. He is only liked by those of us watching him in a video.

10. The $500,000 Half Court Shot

The guys at College Humor found themselves embroiled in a prank war. The seventh prank was a well-planned trick to convince one of the guys that he had won $500,000 by sinking a basket from half court at a professional basketball game. In a stadium full of people, he’s the only one who doesn’t know he’s been pranked. (The return prank is pretty good too.)